Endorfy Arx 500 Air: Extra airflow at volume below 50 litres

Martin Bednár

1 year ago

Motherboard cooling tests

When something is “worth it” and it’s bigger than enough for some, making a smaller version is definitely a good idea. Something similar happened with the Arx 700 Air, from which the scaled-down Arx 500 Air was derived. It has taken all the good qualities and also the wider range of features of the original case. This includes, for example, five pre-installed 140mm fans. So there is no shortage of proper air circulation, and the only question is the noise level.

Basic parameters


Parameters	Endorfy
	Arx 500 Air

Supported motherboard formats	Mini-ITX, mATX, ATX
Supported PSU format	ATX
CPU cooler	up to 179 mm
Graphics cards	up to 350 mm
Fan	7× 120 mm/6× 140 mm (5× pre-installed)
Supported liquid radiators	1× up to 280/360 mm + 1× up to 240/280 mm
2,5" positions	6 + 1 shared
3,5" positions	1 shared
5,25" positions	0
Dimensions [H/D/W] (and volume)	486 × 429 × 228 mm (48 l)
Weight	7,6 kg
Materials	steel + plastic + tempered glass
Connectivity	2× USB 3.2 gen. 1 type A + 1× USB 3.2 gen. 2 type C + 2× 3,5mm jack
Approx. retail price	99 EUR

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Exterior

The case is in a cardboard box secured with polystyrene moldings. There is also one on the side of the case, on the side with tempered glass. So safety during transport is at a high level. After unpacking, in addition to the case, you will also receive a set of accessories. These are various screws, rubber washers, as well as single-use zip ties. A simple illustrated layout is also included. For the detailed manual (59 pages), you need to go directly to the Endorfy website, where you will find it in electronic form.

The left side of the case is made of tempered glass. I measured the thickness of the glass at 3.9 mm, which is a minuscule difference compared to the larger version (4 mm). The glass has thicker black frames around the perimeter, but they do not interfere with the understated look of the case. The type of mounting of the side panels has also helped considerably. These fit into the frame in a precise location and are then secured at the back with two screws. As with the larger Arx model, the screws are still inside the side panels even after loosening.

The front panel is both easy to clean and easy to remove, thanks to its two-piece composition. The front section sticks to the case thanks to magnets around the perimeter. The top you simply pull off and it almost stays in your hands on its own. As it also serves as a dust filter, this removal system is well suited, allowing you to remove it easily on a regular basis. Unfortunately, the holes are as large as 1.5 mm. Although they trap larger dust particles, the small ones will penetrate further into the case.

To give the dust filter something to hold onto and not be close to the fans, the second part of the front panel is a raised plastic frame. Even though this is a smaller version of the original case, Endorfy supplies the same fans as with the larger one. Namely, three Stratus 140 PWM fans. These are mounted in two side extensions that are held onto the case with six screws. This also makes later handling of the fans or a liquid cooler radiator much easier. The latter can be placed here in 280/360 mm format or the original fans can be replaced with three 120 mm fans.

The top I/O panel of the case is not lacking anything either. There is one faster USB Type-C connector (10 Gbps) and two USB Type-A connectors (5 Gbps). Between them, there are two 3.5mm headphone and microphone jacks. The restart button is recessed a little deeper than the power button. This also serves as a prevention against accidentally pressing it. The power button is logically larger and also more comfortable to press. In between there are two status LEDs. One indicates internal storage activity and the other indicates the power-on status of the computer.

The rest of the top part is a removable perforated panel. It holds firmly to the structure thanks to a screw and latches, and at the same time neatly lines up with the rest of the case. As I also mentioned with the larger Arx 700, this method of perforation is preferable to a magnetic filterApart from the aesthetic aspect, there is also the advantage of more space directly underneath, e.g. for fans with anti-vibration mounts. Underneath you will find another Stratus 140 PWM fan mounted above the CPU cooler, which is oriented to suck the air out of the case. You can add another 140mm fan next to it. Of course, you can also place 120mm fan formats under the ceiling, but only two. Due to the shorter length, it is not possible to fit a third one. The same is true for the liquid radiators, those can fit here in up to 240/280 mm format. 360 mm is not supported anymore.

The layout of the back of the case hasn’t changed and everything has remained as it was with the larger case. The mounting of the power supply is from the bottom back through the additional bracket. Thanks to the latter, you can also turn the power supply upside down, as the screws are in the same arrangement on the top and bottom. Directly above are the caps for the PCI Express expansion slots. Their number (seven) indicates that the size of the motherboard format has remained identical. For a more complete look, the screws of the caps are shrouded behind another cover, which is mounted on a hinge. It is magnetically attracted to the rest of the structure. This system holds firmly, but also allows quick access to the expansion slot cap screws.

At the top, there is an opening for the motherboard I/O panel and a space for the fan next to it. The width of the case also allows for a 140 mm fan, the fifth fan in total. This fan is oriented to exhaust air from the case.

Four feet at the bottom hold the case upright. But the material in contact with the storage surface is not non-slip. So you’ll need to be more careful when placing the case in a more risky place so that it doesn’t accidentally fall. A dust filter covers the rest of the whole perforated underside. This does have holes smaller than the front and top panels but 1mm is still not enough to be able to protect the interior from the ingress of fine dust particles in dustier environments.

Interior

The case can accommodate the most common motherboard formats from Mini-ITX, mATX, to ATX. The original case has been reduced in length. This has resulted in the graphics card length dropping from 410 mm to 350 mm in the Arx 500 variant. This already leads to the case being incompatible with some larger graphics cards, but there are still plenty of options to choose from. The width of the case has remained the same, so you have 179 mm available for a tower CPU cooler here as well.

All vertical openings for cables have rubber grommets for a more cohesive look. Their width is the same both under the ceiling and along the motherboard. They offer you 24 mm of space for cable threading. With this width, you can even thread thicker cables through without any difficulty. Due to the shorter length, the Arx 500 is somewhat deprived of holes for mounting a liquid cooler reservoir. Compared to the original nine, there are only three.

The tunnel ceiling is just as superbly equipped as the larger version of the case. There are two larger holes directly under the motherboard. These make it much easier to handle cables when plugging them in. You can then also fit two 2.5″ storage devices to the tunnel by simply sliding them on using the dedicated screws and washers from the accessories. In the other half of the tunnel, you have space for mounting one 120 mm fan. There is also an additional grommet for power supply to the graphics card.

Due to the reduced length of the case, the space between the tunnel and the front panel is slightly smaller. With the original fan mount extensions, you only have 45 mm of space. But if you rotate the extensions, you get additional 30 mm. That means you don’t have to worry about not having enough room to accommodate even a thicker liquid cooler radiator.

To remove warm air from the case, the two 140 mm fans mentioned above are mounted under the ceiling. I have to appreciate that even with the smaller version of the case, the bracket for the cables from the fans has been preserved.

The back of the tray offers you five Velcro pull-tabs for cable management. That’s one less than you’ll get with the Arx 700. But you still have the single-use zip ties from the accessories. You can use these in the more than 20 other cable management positions. You have 22 mm of space directly behind the motherboard for cable management. Near the vertical grommets, the tray bends inwards towards the inside of the case, creating up to 35 mm of space for cabling there.

The metal plates of the Arx 500 are slightly thinner than those of the Arx 700. Their thickness is 0.65 mm, but this does not affect their stiffness at all, as their length is smaller. As a result, they are still just as stiff and do not bend.

You can mount two 2.5″ storage units on the tray in the same way as on the tunnel. You simply slide the storage drives into the holes using the screws and washers from the accessories. You have the option to mount another two directly to the rear frame of the case. Here you secure them with two screws. They don’t clash with anything here and at the same time the empty space of the case is used efficiently.

There is also a hub on the tray for the five mounted fans. The only drawback is that it only has five connectors. You can install up to seven fans in the case, so you’ll have to plug up to three connectors into the motherboard instead of one. That is, only if you want to increase the number of fans to the maximum.

The last option where to install storage is in the tunnel on the floor. Since it slides directly onto the floor, there’s no interference with the cables from the power supply. The good news is that this is a hybrid position. This gives you the option to also fit one 3.5″ drive in the case. But if you’ve already retired that format, you can still fit a 2.5″ storage drive in there as well.

For an ATX-format power supply, including its cables, you have a space of just over 310 mm.

Mounting the hardware is relatively quick. This is helped by the ample space inside the case on either side of the tray. This also made plugging in the cable to power the CPU convenient, even with the ceiling fan mounted. The latter, however, is easy to remove in case of difficulties. For cable management, there’s plenty of room for thicker cable bundles. Also thanks to the diverted grommets, plugging in and storing cables was easy.

Test methodology

The layout and also the higher number of fans ensured great results in cooling tests for the larger Arx 700 Air. The same expectation is also true for the currently tested Arx 500 Air. This one has three Stratus 140 PWM fans in the front to draw cool air into the case. Two Stratus 140 PWM fans take care of exhausting the already heated air. One behind the tower-shaped CPU cooler and the other directly above it.

Testing is done in a home environment where I strive for the most accurate results possible. In the room during testing, the air temperature in front of the case is 23 degrees Celsius and the minimum noise level I can measure with the Voltcraft SL-100 noise meter is 32.4 dBA. The sensor of the noise meter is aligned to the center of the top of the case at a distance of 10 cm, for the best measurement of the speed difference of the fans, which I change using the motherboard. For easy comparison to other cases, they are always regulated to fixed noise levels.

Individual components are heated for 10 minutes in FurMark synthetic stress tests and with Prime95 (custom settings) at the same time. This time is long enough to allow all components to warm up sufficiently. There are then 15-minute cooling breaks between tests, during which the component temperatures (and the case air temperature as well) are brought back to default.

Noise mode levels:

36 dBA
38 dBA
39 dBA


Test setup
Processor	AMD Ryzen 7 3700X
Motherboard	ASRock X570 Taichi
CPU cooler	Scythe Fuma rev. 2 (single fan)
Thermal compound	Noctua NT-H2
Graphics card	Asus RTX 2060 Super Dual
RAM	Patriot, 2× 8GB, 3600 MHz/CL17
SSD	Western Digital Blue 500GB (2280)
Power supply	Corsair RM750X

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CPU and GPU cooling tests

Motherboard cooling tests

SSD cooling tests

Temperature under the ceiling

Conclusion

In the system cooling tests, the Arx 500 Air performed very well. Almost as well as its bigger sister. In CPU cooling, the case came in second place along with the larger variant of itself. In graphics card cooling it tends to lag behind a bit, but compared to the competing cases we’ve already tested, it performs well.

As with the Arx 700 Air, there’s the notable absence of a fine dust filter. Although the front larger perforation will trap larger particles, it can’t handle the smaller ones. Apart from this shortcoming, there is nothing about the case that you would find bothersome. There is plenty of room inside the case. Both from the hardware mounting side and the other, where there is plenty of room to create a neat cable management. In terms of the build on the case, everything fits together beautifully, nothing sticks out, and the metal plates are solid as well. Most of all, I like how Endorfy has created a case that makes use of the usually empty spaces as well. For example, with the fan on the tunnel or the additional two 2.5″ storage mounts directly on the rear frame.

Thanks to the wide platform, the case has enough space for convenient mounting of components, their connection and also for easy cable management. Five Velcro pull-tabs and dozens of clips are available to simplify the process. But if you’re not into neat cable management, that’s okay. The case offers you up to 35 mm of space to “stuff” your cables behind the tray.

Although it may seem unbelievable, for 99 EUR you get almost the same things as with a larger case. You’ll already have five 140mm Stratus 140 PWM fans pre-installed. These are able to cool even the most power-hungry hardware efficiently right from the get-go. The only downside is still the lack of a fine dust filter. But this is already compensated by the ten euro lower price compared to the larger model, and so the Arx 500 Air also deserves the “Smart buy!” award.

English translation and edit by Jozef Dudáš


Endorfy Arx 500 Air
+ Cooling of components at a high level
+ As many as five 140mm fans pre-installed...
+ ... space for seven fans in total
+ Up to seven storage positions
+ Easy cable management
+ Presence of a USB Type-C connector
+ High build quality
- Absence of a fine nylon filter

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Continue: SSD cooling tests and under-ceiling temperature